• Belly Flop by Morris Gleitzman
• Reading Book Covers as Visual Texts - Proformas
• Other ideas for using book covers

• Why is his name placed here?
• What else do you know about the author?
• What does this style of lettering suggest?
• Why are no capitals used?
• Compare size and location of name with title. Which is deemed more important?
  How do you know? Why?

• What information does the title give about the story?
• Why is the title framed like this?
• What does this style of lettering suggest?
• Why are no capitals used?
• How is this title linked to other titles by the same author?

• What can we predict about the story from the illustration?
• How well does it represent the narrative?
• How has the image been constructed?
• Why caricature rather than illustration or photograph?
• Comment on use of colour, point of view, perspective. How are these used? What is the effect?
• What does the illustration suggest about the book’s intended readers/market? Can you see any gender/cultural considerations in the illustration?
• How is the hero represented? Comment on body language, clothing, facial expression, ... How does this fit with the character as described in the story?
• What genre/style/tone can we expect because of this illustration?

• what do these tell us about the way the book will be stored, sold, catalogued?
• Why is the barcode printed on a white background?
• Where else are barcodes used? Why? What does this imply about books?

• Why is only the Australian price given?
• How does this price compare with other recently published children’s book prices? ... with adult paperback prices? Why might this be?
• Who is likely to buy this book?

• What is included here?
• How does the lettering style fit in with the other messages contained on the cover?

• Who seems to be the blurb’s intended audience?
• Can you identify and gender/cultural implications?
• Why have three different fonts and three different colours been used?
• What is the purpose of each section?
• How does this text set up reader expectations?
• Whose opinions are printed here? Often quotes from reviews appear here. Why are there none for this book?
• How effectively does the blurb market the book?
• What tactics would you use to market this book for an older audience?
• Can you design a more effective cover and blurb for this book? What would it be like?

• What impressions do you gain about the author from this photograph?
• Who took the photo? What is the likely relationship of photographer and author? How might this be likely to influence the photograph?
• Why is the author photo used?
• What is the effect gained by using a leaning ellipse to frame the photo?

• What does the logo suggest about the Pan MacMillan Company?
• What else do they publish, for which audiences?
• Who was Pan? How is this an appropriate name for a series of children’s books?

• Who do you think is responsible for the layout of the cover? What sorts of decisions have they had to make?
• What do you think was the illustrator’s design brief for this job? Which incident/idea in the text has the illustrator chosen to illustrate?

Other ideas for using book covers

• Design another book cover for a young/older audience.
• Select rarely borrowed (probably hardback) novels from the library, removing the dated dust jackets. Students undertake to read the novel and design a new cover (with blurb, illustration, ...) to capture the best aspects of the book and to appeal to their peers. Use the new covers on books after laminating and return to shelves for general borrowing after class display and booktalk. A sort of bookish Technology/Arts challenge or design brief!
• Compare alternative covers for the same title as part of the Before Reading preparation for small group or whole class shared literature program.
  • - hardback vs paperback
  • - cross-over titles, ie., childrens or teenagers to adult
  • - special commemorative covers, eg., 50 years in print ...
  • - book to video covers
  • - print book to audio book covers
  • - various covers of classic (or almost classic) texts from different reprints at different times and for different purposes and audiences
  • - original book to film tie-in re-releases
  • - same book rejacketted after short period of time (eg., Paul Jennings, Morris Gleitzman, Gillian Rubenstein)
• Compare a number of covers by the same designer
  (eg., Cathy von Ee, Wayne Harris, David Hughes ...);
• or by the same illustrator (eg., Gregory Rogers, Vivienne Goodman ...) to identify common elements of style.
• Compare covers of information books on the same topic but for different intended readership.
• As the main character in a cover illustration, write interior monologue to explain what you are thinking, what has led to this incident and what will happen next. Compare with the author’s version in the book.
• Experiment with colour to change tone of cover illustration
  (make it happy, sad, enigmatic, mysterious ...)
• Experiment with different art techniques and media (eg., collage, crayon, pencil, oil paints) to create a different impression/appeal to a different audience.
• Identify books which, from their covers, seem intended for mostly male or mostly female readership. Design covers which would appeal to the other gender, and/or to both genders.
• Design a cover for the CD ROM or video version of a particular book.